Castle on the Rise by Kristy Cambron is the next installment of the Lost Castle series by this author. This novel investigates the history of this fictional castle through the eyes of real history. In this fictional present day Laine Forrester have arrived in Ireland to celebrate her best friend Ellie's marriage to Quinn Foley. The Foley brothers, Cormac and Quinn, have had a difficult relationship with their father, Jack, not made any easier since the recent death of their mother. The Foley family has run a pub since 1797 which is this historical novel's roots. The newly weds are renovating a castle for their future home and the Foley family has recently inherited another castle which needs to have the contents researched and categorized for sale or plan for the future. This castle has many mysteries which require the main characters to look into the history of Ireland and history of the Foley family's beginnings in Ireland. Ireland's fight for freedom from England's rule since the 18th century is the background of this story. The 1797 uprising first introduces the reader to the first Jack Foley and his courageous part as a young groom working with the horses of the Ashford family. The Ashford family must make their decisions on whether to side with the Irish that they live among or the English who they depend for their security. The Irish fail is this attempt for freedom. The next named fight for freedom occurs in 1915 and describes that century's Jack Foley's importance in the freedom fight and how the family fights with the rebels for freedom again even though from the outset it is almost certain to fail once again.
I read only this book of the series and so occasionally found myself having to re-read parts of the book. This is a historical romance but it does require a certain amount of concentration to digest it and keep track of the 2 different histories of information. It is simply a fascinating story and because it is fictionalized the story can be more seamlessly told. It is a book to be read when you have time to be able to just sit and read and enjoy. A great rainy day book that I think anyone (not just women) would enjoy reading. The romance is a minor part of what is mostly fictionalized history of Ireland. In the back of the book the author tells which are historical characters and which are fictional, I wish I would have read that part first since I am not as up on Irish history as I should be.
I received this book from Booksneeze for this review.
